Harold Primat Wednesday qualifying report

Tenth overall in first qualifying session for Primat, Tinseau and
Treluyer
The ...

Tenth overall in first qualifying session for Primat, Tinseau and
Treluyer

The #17 Pescarolo 01-Judd of Harold Primat, Christophe Tinseau and Benoit
Treluyer set the tenth fastest overall time and the fourth quickest of
the petrol-powered cars during Wednesday's first qualifying session at
Le Mans.

The car's best time of 3:30.618 was 3.3 seconds faster than its best at
the recent Official Test Day, and within touching distance of the leading
petrol-fuelled LMP1 cars.

Primat started the session and set competitive times as he worked on the
car's race set up during his short seven lap stint. Tinseau then took
over and continued the set up work before concentrating on setting a
qualifying time at the end of the first part of the session. A time of
3:30.914 was set on soft compound tyres and was bettered by three tenths
of a second on qualifying rubber.

In the night time session all three drivers got behind the wheel, but
Primat's time in the car was cut short by a session-ending red flag
caused by a huge accident for the LMP2 Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola
Mazda.

Harold explained: "Unfortunately I didn't manage to complete my three
compulsory night time laps due to the red flag, so I'll have to get
those done on Thursday, but apart from that we're looking ok. We've got
good straight line speed and our time is closer to the Audis than we
expected. The important thing is to have a car which is reliable, as well
as comfortable for all three drivers, and I think we've managed that.
It's a case of so far so good."

Tinseau admitted that he was slightly frustrated with his qualifying run
and hopes to go quicker on Thursday. "I already had a good time in the
bank on the soft tyres, but I was a little disappointed not to be faster
on the qualifying rubber. I drove a steady out lap, but didn't have
enough temperature in the tyres as I started pushing through Terte Rouge.
That spoiled my flying lap, but I have two sets of qualifying tyres left
and I think we can go up to two seconds faster on Thursday, depending on
the weather."

Benoit said: "I drove in slightly strange conditions because I used a
very hard tyre for the cold track conditions. It was important to do that
though as it was part of our work with the dampers. We still have some
slight adjustments to make to the overall set up, but generally the car
feels very comfortable to drive."

Henri Pescarolo: "The three drivers all seem pleased with the car and we
had no problems at all throughout the session. We got through some
important work on the race set up, and the grid position is good, so
overall we're happy."